Lousy Labour

• For a second time, NLC’s election is botched at a time the nation needs it sorely

Ayuba Wabba’s emergence as the new Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President is causing rippling reverberations among the nation’s Labour family. Until his new position, he was the President of Medical and Health Workers Union (MHWU). His election factionalised the congress with the formation of Restoration Group that is led by Joe Ajaero of Nigeria Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) and Igwe Achese of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).

Ajearo rejected the result of the elections in which a total of 3,119 delegates drawn from 43 affiliate unions, cleared by the electoral committee headed by President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nasir Fagge, participated. The NUEE and NUPENG delegates equally rejected the result on the ground that it was fraught with irregularities.

The first election was also botched again, on grounds of alleged irregularities amongst the candidates. The ballot papers used in the rescheduled election were redesigned to reflect names of all the candidates for a particular position on the same ballot paper. In the first one that held at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja, names of all the candidates were printed on different ballot papers, leading to allegations that some candidates’ names appeared more than once in a booklet.

While not saying that it is not unlikely that the former President, Abdul-Wahid Omar, as he was being accused, actually manipulated the electoral system, such should not be sufficient to cause factionalisation of the NLC. We strongly believe that the election could not be deemed illegal since all the 43 industrial unions voluntarily participated in it.

It is high time the Labour movement got its act together. The union should know, in case it has forgotten, that what is at stake is not only about Labour. The group is an important part of democracy because over time, the NLC, has been in the forefront of the campaign for enthronement of democratic rule; it is therefore a sad irony that its house is now divided because of frictions over selfish anti-democratic bickering.

We consider it a sad historical commentary that the NLC is splitting not on grounds of principle but over its inability to keep its house in order regarding its elections. What this has shown is that most Labour activists have lost compassion and commitment for the struggle since the movement is now largely seen as a money-spinning venture and its officers’ elections, a do-or-die affair. This fact has made the factionalisation of the congress to be a whole contradiction of the essence of what the Labour movement stands for.

As Issa Aremu, General Secretary of National Union of Textiles, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria and a contestant for the post of Deputy President in the election puts it: “Disagreement, contestations are part of our heritage and tradition. Nigeria Labour Congress is made up of industrial unions.’’ This better be as this disagreement has to be resolved amicably otherwise, the NLC’s top members and leadership will lose the moral aptitude to contribute to national democratic discourse.